Policing

Police Surveillance of Citizens

Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Key Findings

The best indicator of whether a police officer would make a traffic stop was the driver’s demographics.

Young, Black, and male drivers were stopped the most.

Black drivers are more likely to attribute stops to racially based motivations and question police officers legitimacy.

Both Black and White citizens are more likely to question the legitimacy of a traffic stop if the police officer behaved rudely.

Forty-percent of Black respondents said they “sometimes” or “often” avoid neighborhoods for fear of being targeted by the police compared to 12% of White respondents.

In neighborhoods, being “clean,” (no connection to crime) or “dirty,” (any connection to crime) can influence whether or not an individual is stopped.

Police practices include threatening and lying to citizens who refuse to produce information on “dirty,” individuals.

Police have created databases of offenses that are treated as criminal records (e.g. covering for sex offenders, immigration violators, suspected gang members, etc).

Description

In the article, “Keeping Track: Surveillance, Control and The Expansion of the Carceral State,” Young and her co-author review books that examine direct formal police surveillance (correctional control), which includes individuals that are incarcerated, on parole, or on probation and also informal correctional control, which includes individuals that were formerly incarcerated or arrested; individuals who were stopped or searched; witnesses to crimes; and individuals who have been questioned even if they do not have criminal records. The authors examined data from a comprehensive traffic stop study encompassing more than 2,300 Kansas City drivers as well as observation on police information sharing habits in Philadelphia. The results showed that the best indicator of whether a police officer would make a traffic stop was the driver’s demographics. Young, Black, and male drivers were the most stopped. Black drivers are more likely to attribute stops to racially based motivations and question police officers legitimacy. Both Black and White citizens are more likely to question the legitimacy of a traffic stop if the police officer behaved rudely. Forty-percent of Black respondents said they “sometimes” or “often” avoid neighborhoods for fear of being targeted by the police compared to 12% of White respondents. In neighborhoods, being “clean,” (no connection to crime) or “dirty,” (any connection to crime) can influence whether or not an individual is stopped. Through observation and interviews, individuals have noted that police practices include threatening and lying to citizens who refuse to produce information on “dirty,” individuals. Police have also created databases of offenses that are treated as criminal records (e.g. covering for sex offenders, immigration violators, suspected gang members, etc). The authors note that this high level of scrutiny on citizens decreases police legitimacy and impacts police/citizen relationships.